Despite growing numbers of bilingual children acquiring Chinese in early childhood, little is known about emergent Chinese literacy before formal instruction. We examined 116 Beijing kindergarteners: 79 early Chinese-learning bilinguals from diverse non-Mandarin L1 backgrounds (ages 2–5) and 37 native Chinese peers (ages 4–5). Experiment 1 revealed asymmetric age-related patterns in the bilingual children: phonological knowledge (character–syllable mappings) was above chance by age 2, while visual-graphic discrimination remained at chance until age 4, then reached near ceiling by age 5. Experiment 2 compared 40 of these children (ages 4–5) with native peers on literacy measures. Bilinguals achieved native-like orthographic awareness (d = .11) despite significant gaps in word reading (d = 1.05), vocabulary (d = 1.13), phonological awareness (d = 1.29), morphological awareness (d = 1.33) and rapid naming (d = 1.28). Vocabulary uniquely predicted reading for both groups (β = .53), highlighting its critical role in early L2 Chinese literacy.

This study examines the underlying mechanisms driving the bilingual advantage in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) among kindergarten-aged children. Participants included 85 Dutch-speaking monolinguals and 34 bilingual children. We assessed children’s English vocabulary and grammar as the outcome variables. Furthermore, phonological awareness, executive functions and motivation to learn English were measured as potential mediators of the bilingualism–EFL relationship. We also controlled for child age, non-verbal IQ, Dutch (majority language) proficiency, intensity of school English instruction, parental education and exposure to English activities. Results showed that bilingual children outperformed monolinguals in English receptive vocabulary, but only for noncognate words; no differences emerged for cognate words or English grammar. However, none of the proposed mediators explained this advantage. Findings are discussed in terms of why the effect was limited to vocabulary and potential alternative mechanisms not explored in the present study.